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"Give us the dog and we’ll leave you be"

"He’s , I found him, I--"

"Found him, did ya?"

Jack hurried across the street and heard Merritt on his tail

"It’s got nothing to do with us, Jack," Merritt warned And although he knew the bigabout this place that called itself a city that was already grating on Jack’s nerves It was the curious lethargy of sos, the haphazard way in which the streets had been laid out, as if such things as order did not ht, it was the sense of defeatish places--the waterfront in San Francisco, his months on the road, the terrible four weeks he’d spent in jail--but such atmospheres were usually created by the people Here, the city itself felt dangerous For a fleeting instant, he thought of the wilderness that had been here before the first stampeders arrived

And he wondered what the wild must think of their intrusion

"Hey!" Jack called "Leave the kid alone!" In truth, the kid was probably only a year or two younger than Jack, but he looked like a child

"Get lost and mind your own business!" one of thethe boy The one who’d spoken was tall and stout, with a shaggy black beard that entirely covered the lower half of his face His eyes were hard, his skin pale and blotchy, and he wore a long gray coat, which he now shifted aside, displaying the two pistols slung around his hips The other man was shorter, thinner, and the smile he directed at Jack chilled hi humanity This man--with his short-cropped hair, neatly trimmed mustache, and wide-brimmed hat--was cold as the heart of this land, and Jack sensed a si brutality that uns with Ji on the kid like that?"

"We haven’t even started beating on hi around to it, in fact," the short man said, and his voice was a knife across ice

"They’re trying to take !" the boy said "My Dutch I found him, I fed hi

"Jack," Merritt whispered "They have guns"

The short man smiled He’d obviously heard Merritt, and he shifted his black jacket slightly to reveal the revolver on his belt

Jack laughed It took everyone by surprise--even Jack, because it was a growl he’d felt building--and the tall man’s hands went to his pistols

Behind him, Jack heard Merritt’s sharp intake of breath

"Leave the boy alone," Jack said casually, no sense of threat in his voice "Co when there are a thousand others in Dawson, I’ll bet Did you really coood sense behind?"

The short man’s smile was still there, but it stopped a hundred ht, and not all of them on the Yukon Trail He wondered how many men this short man had watched die He wondered how many he had killed

"Archie," the short , beardedthe alleyway toward Jack, "you’ll turn around and--"

Jack kicked hiroaning, and Jack turned sideways and ground his boot down the ered back, but Jack knew he had started soh scrapes down on the waterfront to know that once begun, a fight wasn’t over until one man was down, and that was doubly true with hardat the shortfor his gun, Jack surged forward and laid into Archie with his fists

It was like ha , and heavy, and Jack wondered how someone from the trail could still retain so ood thief But Jack gave him no opportunity to recover from the first attack When Archie cocked back a fist, Jack darted within his circle of reach and shouldered hiainst the side of the hotel Tiht Jack across the jaw

The pain was fresh and shocking, but Jack punched through it He kicked and swung, claith his hands, and when he felt Archie’s hand clasping for his throat, Jack lowered his face and bit He tasted blood, and it was sour

The kid’s dog, Dutch, was barking And as Jack delivered the final kick that drove Archie to the ground, he heard the faainst leather

"Jack, down!" Merritt shouted, and Jack let hilanced up The shorthis other on his left hip as he laughed

Archie groaned

Jack stood slowly, shaking his hand and speckling his trousers with the other man’s blood

"Gonna shoot me?" he asked the short man

"Oh no," he replied "Not you You’re starved and underfed, but you’re strong Jack That your naht be useful to hter halted so quickly that it did not even leave an echo "This piece of dog dung, however…" He lifted his gun and pressed it against the boy’s throat

Jack knew that he didn’t have a chance in hell They were at least six feet away, and he’d have to cover that distance in the saainst the trigger But figuring the odds had never stopped him before And he knew that there was no other choice

As he launched himself at the short yroared, and the pistol fired

The boy dropped The shot missed him, and a splintered hole appeared in the side of the Yukon Hotel where the bullet had struck The dog shook and growled as it bit into the round as the shooter stepped back, dropped his gun, and fell onto his ru both o and withdrew, teeth bared and bloodied, but he obviously kneho the enemy was here He never took his eyes fro as Jack punched him several times in the jaw and nose When the man lifted his left hand to strike back, Jack clasped the bitten right ar wetness of warm blood there, and theHe tried his best not to scream--Jack saw that, and it impressed him--but then pain became too much, and he let the cry loose